Shabu Shabu is a Japanese dish that is self served in a boiled water or broth. The dish Shabu Shabu is Japanese for Swish Swish, meaning you cook the meat and ingredients very quickly because the beef strips are so thin.  It makes for quick cooking/eating.  Main ingredients are usually a very thin sliced high end cut of beef, greens such as spinach, leeks or bok choy, shitake mushrooms, cabbage, and basically whatever else you want to throw in it.  Some start with chicken broth to add more flavor, and some use a ginger soy sauce to dip in.    I’ve listed a few different recipes I’ve found online to try it out at home, as I imagine it would be hard to make in a hostel.

Epicurious Shabu-Shabu
Food Network Shabu-Shabu

But if you want the true experience, you’ll have to go to Tokyo or Taiwan as I’ve heard these are some of the best places to get this dish or at least a version of it.  Hot Pot, Sukiyaki, are similar and while I’m not going to get into a debate about the history and origins of food here, I will say that this is one meal you may want to spend a little more money on than usual and be wary of cheap versions.  It’s all about the beef, and since the beef is cut so thin, and cooked so quickly, it’s important for your health to not get into cheap cuts.

Recipe Book: Favorite Japanese Dishes (Quick & Easy)

My taste buds for steak and potatoes are fading.  So being constantly on the lookout for new food, I found IndianFoodForever.com.  A very good site with actual recipes,  no popups…just good solid Indian Food tutorials.  Now if I could find a better supermarket…because it’s Masala Dosa this weekend!

Claudia Roden pretty much wrote the book on Middle East Cuisine. She has reached celebrity status….which I’m not sure is a good thing, but it does mean something when she’s been thinking about Middle Eastern food for over 40 years. Waitrose.com has a good article by Roden where she describes the region and food a bit. It also has recipes as well. The last 2 years I’ve been really fascinated by food for some reason, and while you hear a lot about Asian food and Mexican Food, you hardly hear about Middle East, so I was pleased to see a master describe what it’s like to be in the mix of it.

Often found in Santorini, Greece.  Tomatokeftedes are tomato balls with onion, zucchini, pepper, paprika, eggs, covered in flour and fried.  It’s basically like a tomato meatball with a light coat of breading.  Fairly easy to make, as the ingredients aren’t all that hard to find.  You can get the recipe from a favorite site of mine, Greek-recipes.com.